‘The Host’ Trailer & Poster: Stephenie Meyer’s Alien Love Story

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight franchise has permanently altered the landscape for both young adult fiction and supernatural romance. The author’s influence is going to continue even after The Twilight Saga concludes this Friday with Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (until the impending spinoff/reboot arrives, at least). However, we’re looking ahead to the next cinematic adaptation of Meyer’s literature: the sci-fi romance/alien invasion tale, The Host.

Host boasts an intriguing metaphysical sci-fi premise – one which was adapted for the screen and directed by Oscar-nominee Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, In Time) – headlined by Oscar-nominated teen actress Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, Hanna). Twilight fans will get to see the first full trailer attached to Breaking Dawn – Part 2, but it’s now available online for everyone to view (including, those who will be passing on the final chapter in Bella Swan’s story).

This trailer gets right to the heart (re: emotional core) of Meyer’s story – namely, the blossoming love affair between Jared Howe (Max Irons, Red Riding Hood) and Melanie Stryder (Ronan), two young people living day-to-day in a post-invasion world where most of humanity has been enslaved by a race of parasitic aliens that wrestle control of their hosts’ minds and bodies (longtime sci-fi readers: think the Yeerks from Animorphs). Things get messy, though, when Melanie is captured and implanted with an unusual extraterrestrial ‘Soul’ named Wanderer (no joke) – and the two are left wrestling for control over Melanie’s physical form.

Based on the trailer footage, there does seem to be potential for Niccol’s project to entertain as a cocktail of sci-fi action, mythology, and philosophy (even though the emphasis is on the love story); likewise, there were also promising elements in the Host footage shown at this year’s Comic-Con – but will all that potential go untapped? Will The Host prove less lethargic in execution that Niccol’s under-cooked In Time? And are jokes about Meyer’s touchy-feely body snatchers going to have more, less, or equal mileage as those references to the infamous sparkling vampires from Twilight?

We’ll find out for certain next year when The Host opens in U.S. theaters on March 29th, 2013. In the meantime, here is the official poster: